Phill Casaus: A Christmas story to restore your faith in tomorrow

Dec. 10—To help Lilliana Griego's annual Christmas toy drive to benefit the Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center Pediatric Unit is hosting a new, unwrapped toy drop-off from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, at the Fraternal Order of Police, 3300 Calle Maria Luisa, No. 3. For information, call 505-231-4409 or 505-930-0147

You guys write too often about the bad things.

You guys never write good stuff about kids.

When I look at the headlines, I want to snorkel in my cereal milk.

OK, OK, I get it. There are times when Lennon's immortal lyrics — "I read the news today, oh boy" — get the day off on a depressing note.

To that, and to you, I simply say: Please meet Lilliana Griego and experience a day in the life.

Lilli is 11 years old and a fifth grader at Turquoise Trail Charter School. Ninety-nine point nine nine nine out of 100 respondents would agree with me when I tell you she's as cute as pie.

But 100 percent would tell you she's a reason you should feel good today.

So, maybe this is a tiny thing, and maybe too simple. On the other hand, maybe it's massive and complex. Either way, here's the bottom line:

Lilli has been collecting new, unwrapped toys so kids around Santa Fe can have a better Christmas. And she's been doing it — yes, with the help of her family, but it wouldn't happen without her — since she was 4.

"So every year, people come to me and say, 'Does Lilli want to do her annual toy drive?' And I say, 'Yes, she does,' " says Lilli's dad, Isaac Griego.

It's happening again this Christmas season, with Lilli and her family reaching out through social media and friends, who are getting the word out. When the effort started seven years ago, there were just a few toys being delivered to young people facing hardship. Now, Isaac Griego's full-size pickup bed is filled up — twice.

And so it shall be again: The Griegos are inviting a toy drop-off at the Fraternal Order of Police building on Calle Maria Luisa on Saturday. Just before Christmas, they will head to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center to deliver the goodies to kids in the pediatric ward.

Sadly, Lilli doesn't get to view the joy the toys bring to kids moored in the hospital — "I've only seen the people who work there," she notes.

Such are the times in which we live: Worries about infection have isolated those who need closeness the most.

Nevertheless, Lilli offers a happy shrug. The point, she says, is that kids get the toys.

That's always been the point.

"I do it," Lilli says, "because I think I felt bad when I was younger I got all these toys and nobody else [did]."

Lilli's Christmases have been great, if for no other reason than she has a loving family: dad, Isaac; mom, Mershawn Griego; little brother Joseph "Jo Jo" Griego. Listen to Isaac, an electrician for the state Department of Transportation, talk about the family's foundation, and it restores a little faith in what the future of Santa Fe can be.

"The Christmas tree gets put up Nov. 1, so Christmas is big at our house," he says. "We usually go to my mother-in-law's and my mom's house on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day's for us."

The good news is, Christmas doesn't really end. Not really. Maybe it's subtle messaging, and maybe it'll get lost someplace down the line, but the Griego kids are in the car when Isaac and his wife buy an extra hamburger at McDonald's to give to the homeless person in the parking lot, or offer a dollar bill to the guy with the cardboard sign.

Hey, children learn what they live.

For her part, it's pretty apparent Lilli loves being a kid. She's been on a cheer squad. She just joined a volleyball team. Her dad says she's an A student at Turquoise Trail before she corrects him: She got a B in social studies. But what's her favorite subject right now? Social studies.

Beyond the fifth grade? She demurs a bit, then says she'd like to maybe become a marine biologist, her imagination stimulated by a visit to SeaWorld San Antonio. If not the ocean, who knows? Maybe a lawyer.

That's all for later. For now, Isaac Griego — a proud dad, but not a stage door dad — just says he's happy Lilli's so happy.

"Yeah, it makes us, makes me, feel great just because, um, she's so young and she's so ... like I wanna say like an old soul trying to give back and do things," says Isaac. "So it's great to see that."

Lilli is excited to see what might come for her on Christmas Day. She happily announces she has her own one-item wish list: an Apple watch. Her dad's eyes open a bit — I think he's suppressing a wink — at the news.

Speaking of news, a photograph of Lilli made The New Mexican a few years ago as her drive began taking hold. Isaac says he and his wife are keeping a scrapbook for her. You never know if this kind of community service will help if she's ever trying to get into college.

Guys, relax. She's in. No self-respecting university would dare keep Lilli out. The ornament doesn't fall far from the tree.

Phill Casaus is editor of The New Mexican.